Team Kaizen Build Diary

[Ocracoke]

The gap in the middle should be there to allow you to tighten around the motor, so that should be ok,

I guessed that might be the case given the bolt holes looked to line up when on the motor.

The gap at the bottom, i guess was a height issue, perhaps if you let me know the height its missing i can make some spacers from some scrap for you to reach the base of those blocks.

I can work around with some M10 washers or something to build it back up if it is a problem. I don't think it will be though. Thanks for the offer mind.

[Ocracoke]

Lafiel, Amai and Ikari - Ant Freeze 7
Got to the event a little late and after struggling to find a pit space, eventually ending up over from James, all three were immediately thrown into tech check. Amazingly, all three passed first time, even Lafiel! After a brief test to make sure it was still spinning OK, it was time for the competition.

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Lafiel vs Dominus
This had the honour of being the first fight of the event and... yeah... this ended in a shattered robot. After a few glancing blows, Lafiel was promptly turned into confetti with a severe impact to the side. Amazingly, all the electrics still worked afterwards so out came the sellotape and taped the thing back together.

Lafiel vs Dozer
The next opponent, mercifully, was a pushbot. Lafiel was working at full power but I've simply not had enough time getting to grips with the quirks of the robot and was in the pit.

Amai vs Catapult
It is fair to say that Amai is not a particularly dangerous robot. It lacks any sort of weaponry beyond the wedge. Against Catapult, a vertical spinner, it was hit, flipped into the air and landed on its back.

Amai vs Watercolour
It is fair to say that Amai is a really dumb machine. I say this nicely, it has stood up to some truly awful punishment in the past but it is a dated machine. Watercolour was well driven and eventually pushed Amai on its side which ended its run in the event.

Ikari vs Calm Down, its only a drill
Now here is an honour. Shakey's neat robot against my best performer, who received a automatic bye into round 2. Ikari is a drill bots dream though as it has a relatively large, flat top to drill though, which it did. Many times. I lost this as I got caught on the edge of a pit and down I went.

Ikari vs Kaizo
This was pretty quick with a good flip which put Ikari in the pits. It really was a blink and you missed it.

Ikari also fought in the gladiator but ended up on its back and was up against a wall so was eliminated very quickly.

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Ultimately, a fairly poor showing here. I had hoped Lafiel would do well here but to no avail and now needs a new shell which given I've struggled to make one that makes the weight limit, is going to be interesting. Amai needs new electronics really to resolve some really weird lag in activating motors and Ikari needs a new top panel with something to prevent it being stranded on its back again.

As noted though, they are to be put on the side whilst I finally get busy working on Jibril, which I plan to do a video diary of. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

[Ocracoke]

Jibril
Just got the robot on the bench and decided to roughly place the drive motor in the mounts to see where the wheel would roughly go.

20200203_124454.jpg

So here is the problem. With the face plate mount in (the one closest to the wheel), there is simply no room for a shaft support for the wheel. Now, I could get away with not having it in there, the last version of Jibril didn't use them either but that was metal on metal on Polycarbonate. With it held in HDPE, it might very well slip in there under load. I could fit some rubber in there to grip onto the motor can but I am hoping the physical clamping action would be enough. The problem with these types of motors is the lack of any keying on the motor as far as I can see, it is all smooth. I'll figure it out

[Roboteernat]

Is there any screw holes on the face of the motor? what does the motor look like from the front?

[Ocracoke]

There are a pair of what I believe are 10-32 screw holes in the motor. The original plan was to use a piece of polycarbonate to the front face and bolt the face place to the mount and the motor.

[Roboteernat]

I assume the castor wheel has a boss on both sides of the middle bit. If you could remove one side of that boss, you could then mount the main gear the other way round, which would give you the space to have a bearing supporting the wheel on its axis.

[Ocracoke]

Worth trying, I agree. The other issue then is that I don't know if the pinion gear will reach the main gear at all. I guess if it is thin enough, it won't be a problem.

[team death]

Hi Lucy
If I might make a suggestion...the biggest obstacle is going to be the head of the bolt, it

looks like you would need at least 5 mm of clearance coming in from that side and you

are already at a squewiff angle by the looks of things.

If you come in from the other side with your shaft you could be Ok if you just slice a 10 mm

piece of that front mounting to accommodate the nut.

Ideally of course, that shaft would go from one side of the HDPE right through to the

other for strength but unless you cut a groove in the motor mountings or change the

main pinion you cant do it.

[Ocracoke]

Oh gosh! I was only using the bolt to hold the wheel up, it isn't a permanent fixture! I am going to get some shaft supports and some hardened steel shafts to overcome to the bent drive shaft issue from the last version of Jibril though, to be fair, when I took the old shafts out, they weren't too bad.

[Ocracoke]

Jibril
The HDPE base panel has been drilled. Doing 32 holes three times over in 3, 8 and 10mm bits is nuts but there you are. Currently mocking up the motor mount bolt pattern on a 1mm sheet of polycarbonate and waiting on all the drivetrain components for the drive and Scythe to lay it all out before drilling the panel again for the shaft mounts and eventually the wheel gaps.

For completeness, removing the boss on the wheel to allow the gear to move further in seems to make the front mount fit. I've not done it yet as I want all the parts here to get it all measured out and dry fitted properly.

The Scythe is going to have considerably more torque than the old one. The old setup was a F30-150 going through a 15.75:1 gearbox. The new one is a A28-150 going through a 23.93:1 gearbox. I am fairly confident that will allow the robot to self-right this time. The new Scythe is also going to be CAD design affair which finally permits the use of a counterweight. The old design couldn't support one. How heavy the thing is going to be I am not entirely sure but it might end up being lighter at the tip because I hollowed out a lot of it so it isn't a heavy lump at the end.

Realistically, if I can get at it over the week, I could have it moving about by this Sunday. It depends on when the mounts arrive and how long it takes for me to cut the shafts down to size.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Jibril
The HDPE base panel has been drilled. Doing 32 holes three times over in 3, 8 and 10mm bits is nuts but there you are.

Need to get yourself a step drill: https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-s...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Or if the material was thicker than 5-8mm, a spade bit: https://www.toolstation.com/flat-woo...SABEgJbDfD_BwE

Will save yourself a lot of time and changing of drill bits

[Ocracoke]

Hahahaa, true enough! I've got a 10mm spade bit somewhere, will bear that in mind for future use.

[Ocracoke]

Jibril
So yeah, this weekend didn't go to plan. Managed to get the drive templates made but in cutting the drive shafts, need to go outside to that really and it has been too wet to do so. Still, I have about 90% of the components readily accessible...

20200216_023657.jpg

...so at least they are all to hand. I really, really hope to have this mobile by the end of the week, its all staring at me. :P The drive shafts are 60 to 65mm long and are using hardened steel as opposed to shaft steel from the last version with the option to go grade 5 titanium if needed but I don't think it'll be that big of a deal given the last set weren't actually too badly bent.

If I can get the robot mobile by March, I'd be quite happy. It'll definitely need some fixed nylon type castor wheels on the front but I am quite sure they'll be easy enough to mount. That means going into March and forwards is purely focusing on the Scythe and getting the thing tested properly before entering the arena in Portsmouth.

[Ocracoke]

Following on from the last post, I've been busy.

1581980622362.JPEG

Tada! I'll be running out tomorrow to get some M10x100mm bolts or something to screw the motor mounts down with along with some coarse sandpaper and some small nylon castor wheels if I can get some. Sadly, with the face mount on, there isn't anywhere to put the shaft support on the motor side so this will have to do.It wasn't a problem with the U bolts in the last version so this will probably be OK though I'll see about incorporating the face mounts at a later date.

Obviously, next stage is to get the drive shafts cut and then reassemble the body to fit the new Ragebridge and battery box. The fact I've gotten it this far though is a real boost.

[McMullet]

Great stuff! It all suddenly looks much more real when you have the drive mounted on the baseplate. If I was that hoover I'd be feeling nervous.